Want To Feel The Big Breeze? Then, Please Come To Boston

BOSTON — It's not your imagination. Neither is it exaggeration by Red Sox broadcasters Ned Martin and Ken Coleman, or the knights of the keyboard who chronicle Boston's baseball exploits.

It's a fact: Red Sox pitchers are striking out American League batters like never before. Going into Wednesday night's game, the first-place Red Sox staff was averaging 6.98 whiffs per game -- a pace which would yield 1,130 strikeouts over 162 games. The team record is 1,020, set in 1966 and repeated in '67, before the advent of the designated hitter.

The White Sox led the league last year with 1,023 strikeouts. The major- league record is 1,221, set by the 1979 Houston Astros. The AL mark is held by the 1967 Indians (1,189).

Bruce Hurst (84) and Roger Clemens (81) rank first and second in the AL strikeout race. Three Red Sox pitchers have won the strikeout crown -- Cy Young (158 in 1901), Tex Hughson (113 in 1942) and Jim Lonborg (246 in 1967). The individual Red Sox record is 258, set by Smoky Joe Wood in 1912, the year Fenway Park was built.

The Hurst-Clemens race has been fun to watch. Hurst has started an extra game and usually takes the league lead, then watches Clemens move ahead four days later.

''I don't consider myself a strikeout pitcher,'' Hurst said. ''If a guy doesn't want to strike out against me, he can make adjustments. I don't know why this is happening. Maybe I'm just making good pitches now and getting them over for strikes.''

''That's bull,'' Oil Can Boyd said. ''The man is blowing people away. I give up trying to keep up with these guys, man. I'm just going out there pitching my game, letting them hit it.''

Hurst is averaging 8.4 strikeouts per game. If he gets 35 starts (Boyd led the Sox with 35 last year) and keeps striking out batters at the same clip, he will fan 294 batters. Bert Blyleven led the AL last year with 206, and Hurst was fourth with 189.

Clemens is averaging nine punchouts per game and projects to 315 if he gets 35 starts. After a scare concerning a swollen knuckle on the middle finger of his pitching hand, Clemens pitched against the Twins Friday night in Minneapolis.

Together, Hurst and Clemens are on a pace which would yield the second- highest strikeout tandem (609) in baseball history. Nolan Ryan (383) and Bill Singer (241) set the record with the 1973 Angels (the first year of the designated hitter).

Is any of this important? It has been said that a strikeout is a lot like a flashy dunk in basketball. Fans love it, but it's just another two points. Similarly, fans like the strikeout, but it's just another out. Right?

When you strike a batter out, only one bad thing can happen: The catcher can drop the ball.

A ball in play, however, is a stick of dynamite. It can become a hit, an error, a sacrifice fly, or it can simply move a runner along. A strikeout eliminates all of the above. Given the limited range of several Boston fielders, a strikeout means more in Boston than it does if you're pitching for the St. Louis Cardinals.

''When you strike a guy out, nobody has a chance to handle the ball,'' Sox pitching coach Bill Fischer said.

''There are situations when you don't want to put the ball in play,'' Hurst admits.

Herb Score, a feared strikeout artist with the Indians before he was hit in the face by a line drive, said, ''It's nice to be able to strike them out. Obviously, there are some parts of the game when it's more important than others.''

Score led the league in strikeouts twice (1955 and 1956) and thinks Clemens and Hurst have the makings of a great strikeout duo.

''Hurst may say he's not a strikeout pitcher, but he has all four pitches,'' Score said. ''He's not gifted with the blazing fastball, but he has a great curve, and I saw him throw a couple of fastballs where the hitters looked like they wanted to hit the pitch but couldn't.''